This was my first VMworld (Thanks vExpert, Corey and the team for making it happen). I probabily made what the veterans would consider newbie mistakes. I did however make some really good decisions too!

Lesson 1) Day one is partners day.

That’s the problem. If you are not a partner there is a limited amount of

things to do as it is focused on partners and TAMs (Large accounts essentially.) You will not get into the partners booth. This is the day when all the partners are setting up their stands.

There are however a few things you can do to pass the time. Try the hands on labs. There are loads of them to do, they are free and they are all super fresh content. Taking your own laptop means you can bypass the queues for the most part (VMware can only provide so many desktops!)

My personal advice would be that if you are not a partner, travel on the first day and get registered (Registration booths are open late).

Lesson 2) Planning is key

Me being my normal self left installing the app until the last minute… Get the VMware session app setup before you attend. It makes managing your experience (and registering) much easier.

It is critical that you get your session selections picked as soon as they are available. The populuar courses fill up extremely quickly. If you leave it you will get almost zero sessions available.

Lesson 3) There are only so many sessions one person can take.

There are lots of sessions but I would recommend making sure you have plenty of breaks inbetween (Who knows, even talk to other people about VMware if you’re feeling brave.) I wouldn’t suggest more than two back to back.

Lesson 4) Relax…

At the end day it is all about learning about new VMware related trends, tools and have fun.

As an aside if you need somewhere reasonsablly good and fair inexpensive to stay I can recommend L’Hospitalet de Llobregat as a hotel. It is a travelodge hotel that is literally 2 – 3 minutes walk down a straight road from the hotel. Much cheaper and better location than a lot of the more expensive hotels.